Lock Pick Kit

In Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell, doors could be opened using the standard lock picks, or a disposable lock pick. The ordinary lock picks are slower, but they are silent and can be used an infinite number of times, as opposed to the disposable lock pick which could only be used once and made a characteristic hissing noise. The player would use the joystick of the game controller to feel the vibration to successfully pick the pin. When successful, the player will be able to unlock the door and silently enter the room.

In Chaos Theory, the disposable lock picks is not always essential, the door lock can be also broken by Sam's SC Knife. The SC Knife is reusable, but creates even more noise than the disposable lock picks. In fact, the noise is about as loud as firing the SC-20K in a quiet environment, and this will alert everyone near Sam's location. However, the break lock option will just take a few seconds, far faster than normal pick lock option. If you need to be fast and able to evade the alerted NPCs, its suggested to not use the lock pick.

Also in Chaos Theory, the player is provided with a telemetric lock pick for a bank robbery, which enables Sam to pick two locks simultaneously; this device is used to break into a vault. It is only used once.

In Double Agent, there is an advanced unlockable of the Lock Pick Kit: the Electrical Lock Pick Kit, which allows the player to pick locks automatically and faster. The auto-picklock take about 5 seconds to complete, this is helpful especially for player to complete timed objectives.

In Pandora Tomorrow, there is a "lock-breaking" device only seen in Paris mission, it will instantly unlock doors. However, with the introduction of the SC Knife in the next game, such equipment became unnecessary.

After Double Agent, the lock-picking mini game is removed from the series, the Lock Pick kit seems to still remain as the standard issue for Third/Fourth Echelon operators; the player will not have to pick the lock as the character will do it automatically.